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August 2012 Airline System Traffic Unchanged from August 2011

August 2012 Airline System Traffic Unchanged from August 2011

Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - The
U.S. Department of Transportations Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
reported today that U.S. airlines carried 66.3 million scheduled domestic and
international passengers in August 2012, 0.2 percent fewer domestic passengers
and 1.1 percent more international passengers than in August 2011. These
changes resulted in no systemwide change from August 2011 but it was 0.1
percent more system passengers than in August 2010 (Tables 1, 2, 7, 13).

Passengers on All U.S. Scheduled Airlines (Domestic & International), September 2007-August 2012

Although the number of passengers in the most recent month, August, was unchanged from a year ago, U.S. airlines carried 499.3 million total system passengers during the first eight months of 2012, up 1.0 percent from the same period in 2011 (Table 2). Domestically, the airlines carried 434.1 million passengers, up 1.0 percent from 2011 (Table 8). Internationally, they carried 65.3 million passengers, up 1.6 percent from 2011 (Table 14). See Tables 2, 8 and 14 of Air Traffic Press Releases for previous year numbers.

Additional traffic numbers can be found on the BTS website in the Airlines and Airports
box. Click on a link in the column on the right. For more
historical numbers, see Traffic on the BTS website.

Load Factor and
Capacity

Passenger load factors for domestic,
international and system passenger traffic were record levels for the month of August
(Tables 1, 7, 13). Following earlier service reductions, domestic capacity,
measured by available seat-miles, was up 0.1 percent in August 2012 compared to
August 2011. Revenue passenger miles (RPMs) increased by 1.4 percent (Table 7).
The international load factor in August increased as airlines decreased
capacity by 0.2 percent while RPMs increased by 0.7 percent (Table 13). Systemwide
capacity was unchanged compared to a 1.2 percent increase in RPMs (Table 1).
See Tables 1, 7 and 13 of Air Traffic
Press Releases for previous year numbers.

Top Airlines

Monthly: In August,
the combined Southwest Airlines-AirTran Airways carried more system and
domestic passengers than any other U.S. airline (Tables 4, 10). United
Airlines, following its merger with Continental Airlines, carried the most
international passengers (Table 16). The top 10 U.S. airlines carried 84.3 percent
of systemwide passengers, up from 75.6 percent carried by the U.S. airlines that
were the top 10 in August 2011.

Year-to-date: During the first eight months
of 2012, the combined Southwest-AirTran carried more system and domestic
passengers than any other U.S. airline (Tables 3, 9). United, following
its merger with Continental, carried the most international passengers (Table
15). The top 10 U.S. airlines carried 82.7 percent of systemwide passengers, up
from 75.6 percent carried by the U.S. airlines that were the top 10 during the
first eight months of 2011.

The merged Southwest and AirTran are now
reporting separately although operating under a single certificate.

United and Continental began reporting jointly as
United in January 2012. Numbers reported as United in this release for
previous years do not include Continentals numbers.

ExpressJet Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines
began reporting jointly as ExpressJet in January 2012. Numbers reported as
ExpressJet in this release for previous years do not include Atlantic
Southeasts numbers.

Top Airports

Monthly: In August, more total system and domestic passengers
boarded planes at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International than at any other
U.S. airport (Tables 6 and 12); and more international passengers boarded U.S.
carriers at New York JFK than at any other U.S. airport (Table 18).

Year-to-date: During the first eight months
of 2012, more total system and domestic passengers boarded planes at Atlanta
Hartsfield-Jackson than at any other U.S. airport (Tables 5 and 11); and more
international passengers boarded U.S. carriers at Miami than at any other U.S.
airport (Table 17).

For other year-to-date and monthly
comparisons, see the following tables:

Airport Rankings

Scheduled
International Air Travel on
U.S. Airlines (Tables 13-18)

Table 13 (August
and January through August):
International passengers
International flights
International revenue passenger-miles on U.S. airlines
(RPMs)
International available seat-miles on
U.S. airlines (ASMs)
International passenger load factor on
U.S. airlines
International flight stage length on
U.S. airlines
International passenger trip length on
U.S. airlines

Table 14
International scheduled enplanements on U.S. airlines by
month since January 2010

Airline Rankings

Table 15
January through August: Top 10 U.S. airlines by scheduled
international passenger enplanements

Table 16
August: Top 10 U.S. airlines by scheduled international
passenger enplanements

Airport Rankings

Table 17
January through August: Top 10 airports by scheduled
international passenger enplanements on U.S. airlines

Table 18
August: Top 10 airports by scheduled international passenger
enplanements on U.S. airlines

Reporting Notes

Data
are compiled from monthly reports filed with BTS by commercial U.S. air
carriers detailing operations, passenger traffic and freight traffic. This
release includes data received by BTS from 77 carriers as of Nov. 8 for U.S.
carrier scheduled civilian operations. Go to http://www.transtats.bts.gov/releaseinfo.asp for the complete list of reporting and non-reporting carriers. U.S. carriers foreign point-to-point
flights are included in system and
international totals. To create a customized table for passengers,
flights, RPMs, ASMs and other data, including non-scheduled service, go to http://www.bts.gov/programs/airline_information/air_carrier_traffic_statistics/.

Traffic numbers are available on
the BTS website at TranStats, the Intermodal Transportation Database, at http://transtats.bts.gov. Click on Aviation. For system passengers, RPMs and ASMs by
carrier through August, click on Air Carrier Summary Data (Form 41 and 298C
Summary Data), and then click on Schedule T-1. Use crosstabs to find
scheduled service.

For domestic numbers through August
and international numbers through May by origin as well as by carrier, after
clicking on Aviation, click on Air Carrier Statistics (Form 41
Traffic). Click on T-100 Market for
system passenger numbers, T-100 Domestic Market for domestic or T-100 International
Market for international. For flights,
stage length and trip length, use the appropriate T-100 Segment database. Use
crosstabs to find scheduled service.

TranStats system and international
totals do not include U.S. carriers
foreign point-to-point flights. For
August, U.S. carriers reported 216,874 foreign point-to-point passengers. For
January through August, U.S. carriers reported 1,600,118 foreign point-to-point
passengers.

Data are subject to revision. BTS
has scheduled Dec. 20 for the release of September 2012 traffic data.

Table 1: Scheduled System (Domestic and International)
Airline Travel on U.S. Airlines